Paris in the 1920s: Hemingway’s city of sport

Abstract

ABSTRACTHemingway’s representation of Paris in A Moveable Feast has enthralled many a reader. It steers clear of traditional description as the author prefers to ‘create’ the city rather than ‘describe’ it. The narrator presents streets, cafés and restaurants as familiar places, thus imparting greater immediacy to his sense of the city. It is the same for the sports venues he frequented and idealised. Indeed, Ernest Hemingway was an enthusiast of horse racing at the Enghien-les-Bains hippodrome, the six-day bicycle races at the Vél’ d’Hiv’, and boxing matches at Stade Anastasie in Ménimontant, etc. This paper aims to present Hemingway’s interest in Parisian sports. It should be considered as an opportunity in his development as a writer. In this way, he was able to step into French cultural life, meet modern and sporting poets, box with his American counterparts as they talked about literature, and define the character of his figures while he polished his writing style.